It’s an idea President Trump has endorsed following a number of school shootings. NBC 7’s Liberty Zabala has both sides of the story.
A controversial workshop hosted by San Diego County Gun Owners gave teachers and other school employees a chance to learn how to fire a weapon Sunday.
The workshop’s instructors said they weren’t going to talk about politics and would simply focus on the facts, but teachers on both sides of the debate had their own opinions.
“I feel a need to protect on campus,” said teacher Marjorie Archibald. “I want to understand what the guns can do, how they work and what can I do to protect on campus."
Many of the approximately a dozen teachers who packed the Discount Gun Mart were eager to learn after recent mass shootings like Parkland, Florida and Santa Fe, Texas.
Those tragedies led President Trump to endorse training and arming teachers in the classroom.
“I'm excited to try, to give me options to defend myself and protect my students,” preschool to 12th-grade teacher Shauna Smith agreed.
The teachers went through three hours of identifying different types of guns and how they work during the training.
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Kevin Beiser, president of the San Diego Unified School District, is concerned about the direction the president is trying to take the discussion on school safety.
“It's just nuts thinking that giving teachers guns is the solution,” he told NBC 7.
Beiser brought up incidents in California and Utah where teachers' guns accidentally went off.
“It's just a matter of time before kids are killed accidentally because teachers have guns in the classroom,” he said.
Shauna Smith, who fired a handgun for the first time this weekend, says she never wants to use this kind of force, but she's glad she knows what it feels like just in case. “I don't want to live in fear,” she said. “I’d rather just have the knowledge to be able to deal with situations as they arise."
There is no dispute, however, that both sides hope another shooting won’t happen.
The San Diego Gun Owners organization is thinking of hosting this workshop annually.
